ABSTRACT
Pedagogical approaches to heritage language (HL) instruction are being suggested and implemented on a large scale. D. Scalera’s definition of heritage language learners (HLL) as individuals who have learned a language other than English somewhere other than in school seems to imply that any language learner in a naturalistic setting is a HLL. J. A. Fishman’s categories are useful in defining the majority of HLLs in terms of a group and its historical relationship with the United States, thus acknowledging HLLs’ ancestral heritage and extending their ties to the HL and heritage culture beyond immediate families. Fishman’s definition, like those offered by G. Valdes, J. B. Draper and J. H. Hicks, and Russell Campbell and J. K. Peyton, does not pay enough attention to HLLs’ cultural and socio-psychological struggles. The chapter examines the multiple identities of HLLs and the multiple paths of biliteracy development and use they adopt.
